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New Thinking Blog: The Solution to Rising Bills is Demand Reduction and Courage in Leadership
The Solution to Rising Bills is Demand Reduction and Courage in Leadership Tom Steward, IGov Team, 25th October 2013 About Tom: http://projects.exeter.ac.uk/igov/people/igov-team/tom-steward/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/Steward_T The nights are drawing in, leaves are changing from green to gold, and energy suppliers are announcing price hikes. Along with animals disappearing into hibernation, energy price rises have become what looks to be a permanent sign of the start of winter. This week, Npower and Scottish Power joined British Gas and SSE by announcing this years’ price rises. With bills reaching record levels, leading more and more households into fuel poverty[1],
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New Thinking Blog: The Nuclear Announcement – a Pyrrhic victory?
The Nuclear Announcement – a Pyrrhic victory? Catherine Mitchell, IGov Team, 21st October, 2013 About Catherine: http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Catherine_Mitchell There are many interesting points about the much trailed nuclear announcement today but the ones I find particularly interesting is that regarding the 10% return on investment and the various issues which still have to be agreed, including the EU decision on State Aid. The latter is unlikely to be agreed in the next 2-3 years so today’s announcement is a political mirage. In brief, and in non-legal language, countries should not favour certain parties and distort competition
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EPG Sept 13 News Update
This document summarises some of the key outputs for the Energy Policy Group for September 2013. Download the EPG Sept 2013 news update
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New Thinking Blog: Energy Transitions and Technology Scale
Energy Transitions and Technology Scale About Richard: http://projects.exeter.ac.uk/igov/people/igov-team/richard-hoggett/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/HoggettRD Last week it was reported yet again that the potential deal between the government and EDF for the UK’s first new nuclear plant was near, with a suggestion that a strike price of £93/MWh had been agreed. In the same week DECC put out an updated PV roadmap showing an ambition for up to 20GW of new capacity by 2020, with a new solar strategy due in 2014. These are two very different technologies, operating at different scales that have different implications for the way the
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New Thinking Blog: Green Energy Costs and Competitiveness
Green Energy Costs and Competitiveness Matthew Lockwood, IGov Team, 8th October 2013 About Matthew: http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Matthew_Lockwood Twitter: https://twitter.com/climatepolitics Two narratives about energy (especially electricity) and the UK versus the rest of Europe commonly do the rounds in the British energy debate. One (typically promoted by ministers across the coalition) is that, apparently due to our superior market-led policies, we have much cheaper energy than the rest of Europe. The other, often promoted by energy-intensive industries and most recently by George Osborne last weekend, is that ‘green’ taxes and levies are being piled on to energy costs, threatening
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Paper: Exploring the Politics of Low Carbon Energy Transition
Exploring the Politics of Low Carbon Energy Transition By: Caroline Kuzemko Presented at: Innovation, technology and regulation – Exploring new modes of energy governance. At 7th ECPR General Conference, Sciences Po, Bordeaux, 4 – 7 September 2013 Introduction Profound structural change is an area of active and current debate within the political sciences. A variety of different conceptualisations of how and why change as a process occurs have been offered, albeit usually constructed with the benefit of hindsight. We are currently, however, living within a period of profound crises within, and changes and challenges to,
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Paper: System change in a regulatory state paradigm: the “smart” grid in the UK
System change in a regulatory state paradigm: the “smart” grid in the UK By: Matthew Lockwood Presented at: Innovation, technology and regulation – Exploring new modes of energy governance. At 7th ECPR General Conference, Sciences Po, Bordeaux, 4 – 7 September 2013 Introduction This paper examines one aspect of the political dynamics of the transition to a more sustainable energy system in the UK. The focus is on ‘smart grids’, which involve innovation in regulated monopoly electricity networks. The smart grids agenda is central to more sustainable electricity systems, as it will be essential for
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Presentation: Understanding Consumer Heat Preferences
Understanding Consumer Heat Preferences From: Richard Hoggett To: UKERC Meeting Place – Low Carbon Heat: Research Gaps & Opportunities, March 2013 More information on this event http://www.ukerc.ac.uk/support/0313_MP_LowCarbonHeat Download presentation: Hoggett_Consumer Perspectives 26-3-13 The report this presentation is based on is available from the EPG website
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Article: Paying for climate policy
Paying for climate policy: The case for long-term public borrowing By: Matthew Lockwood Published in Juncture 26 Sep 2013 We should ‘borrow’ from future generations to fund measures to mitigate climate change now, argues Matthew Lockwood. Ed Miliband’s dramatic pledge to freeze energy prices at the Labour party conference this year was a simple, and so far popular, move. But underneath it lies a complex dilemma for the left on climate policy. In the mid-2000s, a wave of public concern about climate change led centre-left politicians across Europe to the view that a deeper green agenda could
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New Thinking Blog: The Freezing Gamble – Corporate and State Power in the UK
The Freezing Gamble – Corporate and State Power in the UK Caroline Kuzemko, IGov Team, 26th September, 2013 About Caroline: http://geography.exeter.ac.uk/staff/index.php?web_id=Caroline_Kuzemko Twitter: https://twitter.com/CarolineKuzemko Ed Miliband’s plan to freeze electricity prices for 20 months is an out-and-out electoral gamble. Labour researchers have clearly picked up on the social issue of rising energy costs and are using these concerns for electoral gain – rumour has it that focus group approval ratings for the price freeze were ‘off the scale’. But there is another question at stake here – that of power relations between the big six energy
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